1. What does the third level refer to?
2. Would Charley ever go back to the ticket-counter on the third level to buy tickets to Galesburg for himself and his wife?
3. Do you think that the third level was a medium of escape for Charley? Why?
4. What do you infer from Sam’s letter to Charley?
5. ‘The modern world is full of insecurity, fear, war, worry and stress.’ What are the ways in which we attempt to overcome them?
6. Do you see an intersection of time and space in the story?
7. Apparent illogicality sometimes turns out to be futuristic projection. Discuss.
8. Philately helps keep the past alive. Discuss other ways in which this is done. What do you think of the human tendency to constantly move between the past, the present and the future?
9. You have read, ‘Adventure’ by Jayant Narlikar in Hornbill Class XI. Compare the interweaving of fantasy and reality in the two stories.
10. What will the President of the New York Central and the New York, New Haven and Hartford railroads swear? What did the narrator claim?
11. Why did the narrator talk to a psychiatrist friend of his and what did he say about the third level?
12. How did the narrator’s psychiatrist friend analyze his claim of being at the third level of Grand Central Station?
13. What did the narrator’s friends say about him? What did his stamp collecting point to?
14. What did the narrator say about his escapism from the real world?
15. The narrator thinks that the Grand Central is growing like a tree. What makes him think so? Why has it been ‘an exit’?
16. How did the narrator get lost when he was heading for the sub-way?
17. How did the narrator come out on the third level at grand Central Station after he had lost the way?
18. What did the narrator see unusual at the third level?
19. Describe Galesburg Illinois in 1894. Why did the narrator want two tickets to
Galesburg, Illinois?
20. “That ain’t money, mister” said the clerk to the narrator. Why did he warn the Narrator?
21. How did the narrator get the old-style currency? Why couldn’t he buy two tickets for Galesburg in spite of having the currency used in 1894?
22. Why was the narrator’s wife Louisa worried?
23. What is a first day cover? Explain.
24. What strange thing was found among the oldest first day covers? How did it come there?
25. What was written in Sam’s letter to Charley?
26. Why couldn’t Sam go back to his old business?
27. What does Charley’s psychiatrist friends say about his visit to the third level?
28. What do Charley’s friends think about his stamp collection?
29. Why does Charley compare the Grand Central Station to a tree?
30. How does Charley find himself on the third level at the Grand Central Station?
31. What peculiar things does Charley notice on the third level?
32. Do you think that the third level at the Grand Central was a medium of escape? If yes, how?
33. Why is the clerk surprised when Charley starts counting the money?
34. What does Charley do after he leaves the third floor?
35. Could he go to the third floor again to buy tickets for him and his wife?
36. What is a ‘first-day cover’? How is it collected?
37. What strange thing does Charley find in his stamp collection?
38. Who wrote that letter and to whom?
39. What was written in the letter that Sam wrote to Charley in 1894?
40. What happens to his friend Sam? Where does Charley suspect him to be?
41. What is the most revealing fact about Sam?
42. The Grand Central Station has only two levels. Charley said there were three. What did his psychiatrist friend think?
43. What did the psychiatrist think about Charley’s stamp-collection? Why did Charley not agree with him?
44. How was Charley often lost on the Grand Central Station?
45. How did Charley reach the third level?
46. How did Charley realize that he was on the third level?
47. How did Charley make sure that he had actually travelled in the past?
48. Why did Charley rush back from the third level?
49. Why did Charley want to go to Galesburg?
50. How did Charley prepare to go to Galesburg? Why couldn’t he reach there?
51. How did Charley learn that his psychiatrist friend had reached Galesburg of 1894?
52. What did Sam write to Charley from Galesburg?
53. Why does Charley think Sam escaped to Galesburg?
54. How do you find the ending of the story surprising?

LONG ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS

1. What does the third level refer to? Is it a medium or a way of getting away from the unpleasant and insecure present forgetting your normal life?
2. How did Charley stumble into the third level at Grand Central Station? Describe his experience there?
3. Describe Charley. Do you think his being on the third level at Grand Central Station was a waking-dream wish fulfillment? What did his stamp collecting point to?
4. ‘The Third Level’ at the Grand Central Station is nothing but a convenient excuse for escapism. Justify the statement.
5. Describe Charley’s character with special reference to his escapist tendency.
6. Describe Charley’s impression of the world he encounters on the third level at the Grand Central Station. Why couldn’t he buy tickets to Galesburg?
7. How has Jack Finney interwoven fantasy and reality in ‘The Third Level’? Also highlight the interaction of space and time in the story.
8. Charley wanted to go home quickly but he reached the third level. How did he get there?
9. What was the third level like? How did Charley know he had bumped into the past?
10. Why did Charley come back from the third level? What did his psychiatrist friend think about his experience?
11. Sam’s letter to Charley is a fine blend of reality and fantasy. Comment.

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